Beaker Glass Funnel

Helen Rosner

August 18, 2011

CB2

I remember with perfect clarity the moment I realized how ridiculously cool it is to serve water out of repurposed wine bottles. I was at a tiny, shoulder-to-shoulder-crowded Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, I had just moved to the city out of college, and our waitress — impossibly chic in her regulation New York City black — showed up with two label-free wine bottles in hand, one clear, one green. "Sparkling or still?" she asked, and proceeded to pour our water from what was, to me, the most elegant, nonchalant, fuss-free vessel I'd ever seen put to the task. And one that's oh so easy to bring home — all you need is a cache of empty wine bottles, and a funnel to get the water in without making a mess. A plastic one will do, but when a glass version is this inexpensive and this durable (it's made from the same glass used for scientific lab gear), why use anything else?